Here’s another peek into what life is like for us. Doing laundry is a little more time consuming now and we thought you might be interested in how the process works!
Our washer – called a twin tub washer – is in the storage room underneath our house. We do not have a dryer – other than the sun and wind.
The laundry process starts off early in the morning with going downstairs and using a hose to fill up the tub of the washer. The hose does not turn off by itself so it is best to stay close by! While I haven’t let it overflow yet, I’m expecting that one of these days I’ll be trying to multi-task and will forget that I started the water and I’ll come back too late!!
After the tub is filled and the clothes and soap are in, I turn a knob and the washer starts to agitate – usually for about 10 minutes. As soon as that is done, it’s time for the rinse.
That requires removing the clothes from the tub into the utility sink. I usually rinse a few pieces of laundry at a time. Then the clothes go into anther tub that spins them out.
The wash tub is bigger than the spin tub so depending on the size of the load, the rinse and spin process is repeated several times.
Once all the laundry is out of the wash tub, you can either save the water to use for the next load (depending on how dirty the water is) or turn a knob to drain the water out of the tub.
Finally it’s time to hang the clothes out to dry. If it’s a nice sunny, breezy day, I hang the clothes outside in the sun.
However, if it looks like it might rain (it is rainy season now) or if we are going to be away from the house (and therefore not able to run out and get the clothes if it begins to rain), I hang them on lines under the house.
I’ve found that it’s best to get an early start on the laundry. If I start it too late in the day, there isn’t time for it dry before dusk. However, I’ve left clothes hanging under our house several times. They get damp at night but the next day they dry out again.
Laundry is also usually an every day task. We go through lots of clothes! We’ve found that we very rarely wear something twice without washing it. We’re hot and sweaty and the boys get dirty and sweaty playing.
A few ladies back home told me to let them know what day was going to be my laundry day because they wanted to specifically pray for me on those days. Well, every day is laundry day!! I don’t mind being prayed for every day!!
Eirana Doyle says
I can see your thankful heart Emily, even in doing such a process for laundry!!
Angela Maggard says
Well, that makes me thankful for my washing machine!! Looks like an adventure! 🙂 Thanks for showing us!